Starts With Goodbye
by livin4rain
Summary: How did Hermione end up in the situation where she has to choose between her friends and the man she loves? How will she choose between her heart in her brain? How come she can't choose who she falls in love with?


"Will you marry me?" Both boys asked at once, glaring at each other. Hermione stared down at them wide eyed. What was she going to do? Pick her friend, or her enemy, the man she loved? How did all of this start?

(At The beginning of the year…)

Hermione sighed as she shuffled through all of her papers. She really needed a vacation, but she didn't trust anyone to get any of the work done while she was gone. Being an Auror, as Hermione soon found out, was not all chasing bad guys and bringing them in. Usually they had Harry go and so the arrests any way, it was good publicity for the Boy-Who-Defeated-You-Know-Who to be seen rounding up the rest of the Death Eaters.

Ron was usually sulking around his office, or out to dinner with his wife Luna along with his three kids, Todd, Alex and Jarred. Harry needed to be out, ever since Ginny died in the final battle, he had been rather lonely. Hermione on the other hand was left to deal with the Auror she shared an office with, Draco Malfoy.

Just because he had become an Auror didn't mean that he had stopped to teasing. No, now it just gave him license to tease her without being seen as an evil git. Instead he was now just a git, but at least he had stopped calling her a Mudblood. He had become some what friends with Harry and Ron though, but it bugged Hermione that he still teased her.

"Granger, Potty just got back in. He wants to see you in his office," Draco snarled at her as he walked into the room.

"Just tell him I'm busy and can't go with him to diner tonight," Hermione said exasperatedly. Harry had been asking her to dinner a lot lately and the one time she had accepted it had been rather awkward. She knew Harry was still trying to get over Ginny, but he really needed to find a girlfriend.

"I'll tell him you said that," Draco said a smirk appearing on his face. Hermione rolled her eyes; he just loved being the barer of bad news.

"What do you want?" Hermione snapped when Draco appeared back in the doorway moments later.

"Potter said you work too much and need a break," Draco said in a bored tone.

"Tell him he needs a girlfriend," Hermione snapped.

"Why don't you tell him? Honestly, I'm not your messenger. Granger, I thought you were smart; Potter is trying to get a girlfriend. Why do you think he keeps asking you out?" A triumphant smirk played across Draco's face.

"Oh," Hermione went pale. "Shoot, I mean I love Harry as a friend, but…" She looked towards his office hopelessly.

"Maybe you should stop leading him on," Draco said sitting down at his desk.

"I didn't know I was leading him on," Hermione scowled.

"Yes, but know you do. So you go over there and tell him that you don't love him that way and that'll put an end to it." Draco said as if this were the easiest thing in the world to do.

"But he still hasn't gotten over Ginny, it would hurt him," Hermione said turning back to her work.

Draco opened his mouth to retort, but just then Ron came bursting into the room.

"Hermione," Ron said hurriedly. "I'm taking Luna and her parents out to dinner; do you think you could watch them?"

"If you get someone else to help," Hermione said automatically. Ron's kids were worse then the twins, Fred and George.

"Already done," Ron said looking at Malfoy. Hermione silently cursed, she had to watch three kids with Draco? She was starting to wish she had accepted Harry's dinner invitation.

"Have fun," Hermione said tonelessly.

"Thanks a million Hermione," Ron said in relief and ushered the three kids into the room. "Now you listen to Hermione and Draco kids, and behave!" With that he was gone. Hermione quickly put away her files and stood up.

"Come one kids, let's go to my house," Hermione said taking some floo off the counter. "Here, you know the address," Hermione gave Draco some floo powder.

"Hermione's house," the kids shouted and with a swoosh they were following Draco through the floo network. Hermione followed them shortly afterwards.

"Off the couch!" She shouted as she twirled out of the fireplace to see the three Weasleys jumping on her couch.

"Awww," all three whined and Draco chuckled.

"You were supposed to watch them for the few minutes that I wasn't here," Hermione fumed at the laughing Draco.

"There is a reason why Ron didn't want me to watch them alone," Draco smirked.

"Oh God," Hermione muttered watching Draco disappear into the kitchen

"Hermione!" The kids whined.

"ICE CREAM!" Todd yelled.

"YEAH!" Jarred and Alex screamed.

"No, it is too late, it is time for bed," Hermione said disapprovingly.

"Ice cream," Draco said stingingly coming out with big bowls of ice cream, syrup and chocolate.

"No," Hermione said taking the ice cream out of his hands.

"Yes," Draco said smirking taking out back from his hands and handing the ice cream to the kids.

"What are you doing?" Hermione glared at him angrily.

"I don't know, they wanted ice cream," Draco shrugged.

"Uh! It is like watching four kids," Hermione fumed later, picking up the mess they had made.

Chocolate coded all their faces and they had fallen asleep on the couch. One by one Hermione carried each kid into the room and tucked them in. Gently she cleaned off their chocolate covered faces and shut the door behind her.

Draco was sprawled on the couch, his face too covered with chocolate. Hermione threw a blanket over him and got her napkin. Carefully she wiped the chocolate from his face smiling softly. He looked so peaceful when he was sleeping; none of his past seemed to haunt him in his dreams. Hermione's past haunted her in her dreams though, and all those people she had killed during the war. They were the same ghosts that haunted Draco's face when he was awake, but at least he could sleep. Hermione on the other hand rarely slept unless it was with Dreamless sleep potion, but she couldn't use that tonight. What if one of the kids needed her?

She finished wiping the chocolate off of his face, so lost in thought that she didn't notice his eyes flicker open slightly. When she left for the kitchen she didn't notice him sit up and watch her leave, his haunted eyes following her with curiosity.

Around midnight there was a knock at the door and Hermione had been prepared for it. Whenever Hermione said no to Harry, he showed up drunk at midnight. Ginny had died at midnight, in Harry's arms. Then Harry would go to Hermione, just like he had done on that night.

"Hermmmmiiiiiiiiiiiione," Harry sung loudly.

"Shhh, Harry the kids are sleeping," Hermione quieted him down and led him to the kitchen. She had some tea already for him and he began to drink it immediately. Now Hermione had a problem, where was Harry going to sleep?

"Hermione," Harry said suddenly looking up at her. "Whydontyouloveme?" His words were slurred.

"Harry we're just friends," Hermione hushed him and wiped his face that was covered in firewhisky.

"I know dat," he said looking down at his tea. With some more mumbling he laid his head down on the counter and fell asleep immediately. Sighing, Hermione grabbed his arm and slung it over her shoulder as she tried to pick him up.

"Need help?" A voice said from the kitchen door making Hermione jump and almost drop Harry.

"Yes please," Hermione panted and Draco took Harry's other arm and helped Hermione bring him to her room.

"Does he always do this?" Draco asked after she pulled the covers over Harry.

"Yes," Hermione sighed a frown forming on her face.

"It isn't right that you have to do this every night, don't you get sleep?" Draco frowned.

"Most the time I sleep after midnight, otherwise I won't wake up if he knocks," Hermione said shutting her bedroom door behind her.

"Dreamless sleep potion?" Draco questioned, it tended to have side effects that meant the person didn't wake up for a certain amount of time, depending on how much was taken.

"Yeah," Hermione said not looking at Draco as she headed back to the kitchen and took Harry's empty tea cup.

"So Weasley dumps his kids with you and Potter shows up drunk every night. Oh and you are obsessed with work, that doesn't leave too much time for personal stuff," Draco said his dark grey eyes following her as she swept around the kitchen.

"Thank you for that assessment of me life," Hermione snapped. "And I do to have time for personal stuff," she sniffed.

"Oh really, when was the last time you had a boyfriend?" Draco asked he got her there. The last boyfriend she had was Ron, but then he dumped her for Luna.

"Hogwarts," Hermione sighed in defeat.

"Potter was right, you do overwork yourself," Draco said with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah well I like my life thank you very much, and I don't need Harry's, Ron's and certainly not your opinion on it," Hermione said angrily turning around and glaring at him.

He was leaning against the wall, one leg crossed over the other with his hands in his pocket. His eyes narrowed at her slightly.

"Don't you think there must be some truth in it if everyone is telling you the same thing? Come one Hermione use you brain, you're supposed to be smart. It _isn't_ smart to overwork yourself like this and then not sleep at all," Draco said angrily and Hermione looked up at him surprised. He had said her name…

"Yeah well that's my life and it's working pretty well for me at the moment," Hermione said and she strode out of the room. He had no right to tell her that her life was hell, she knew that already…

a/n Please review! Also I made a video for this story; you can check it out on my author's page, just click the link!


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